Europe is turbulent, and the first to sit still is not Austria, nor John Bull, but the Berlin government in the whirlpool.

No way, no matter how many people the Russians calculated, once the plan succeeded, they would definitely be the worst.

"In any case, we must also sabotage the Russians' borrowing plans."

William I said cautiously. He did not want to be ousted from power, the Kingdom of Prussia had already gambled on its national fortunes, and the people could not tolerate defeat.

Once the Russians get loans from France and Austria, the war really can't be fought. Even if it won the decisive battle that was about to begin, the Kingdom of Prussia could not change its fate.

The tsarist government did not lack soldiers, they just lacked money! No matter how heavy the losses were, it was the same for St. Petersburg.

This is historically reliable, hundreds of years ago, Russia fought for many years, and in the end, there were no more men, so people organized female soldiers to continue fighting.

Today, unlike in the past, there are really many people in the Russian Empire, eight or nine million. Kaiser Wilhelm I did not think that he could fight the tsarist government unbearable.

Foreign Secretary McSkate proposed: "Your Majesty, I propose different measures for France and Austria to block their loans to the Russians.

To deal with the French, you can start with the joint defense plan. Taking advantage of the fear of the French in European countries, they used diplomatic means to exert pressure.

Austria's ambition to unify Germany has never been extinguished, and the French are on the opposite side of the Rhineland.

The British were also very jealous of the French, and if the French wanted to annex the Rhineland, the London government was likely to intervene.

All we had to do was to convince Napoleon III that if they annexed the Rhineland, they would be boycotted by Britain and Austria.

Vienna and London will continue to play this diplomatic drama. They just need a strongly worded diplomatic statement, and the French will hesitate.

In dealing with the Austrians, I propose to use the nationalists to create pressure on public opinion and accuse the Vienna government of colluding with foreign enemies and betraying the interests of the German nation.

Originally, this loan was the result of the calculations of the Russians, and it was only agreed to by the Vienna government due to public opinion. Now we are also using nationalism to give the anti-Russians an excuse to sabotage this loan. ”

The position of politicians has always changed with demand. Initially, for the sake of expansion, the Kingdom of Prussia engaged in German nationalism, advocating the unification of the German regions to form a large empire.

With the revival of Austria, they found it impossible to unify Germany, but more likely to be unified. In order to ensure their own interests, they engaged in Prussian independence.

Now, in order to sabotage the Russians' loan from Austria, MacKate did not hesitate to sacrifice German nationalism again, and was ready to use it to influence the decisions of the Vienna government.

Prime Minister Christian thought for a moment and said: "These plans can only delay time, unless we achieve a big victory on the battlefield and dispel the belief that the Russians will win."

Otherwise, in the end, the conspiracy of the Russians will still succeed. In the face of interests, all contradictions are not worth mentioning.

There was no possibility of compromise between France and Austria, and it only took an excuse for the three families to divide Prussia and make it a reality.

Nationalism influenced the decisions of the Viennese government at most, but it could not influence them.

They opposed the French occupation of the Henlandland, not because of nationalism, but more because they did not want to see the French grow bigger, and because they suffered in this spoils-sharing plan. ”

This is the essence of the problem, the unification of the German regions is just Franz's political slogan. Shout when you need it, and throw it aside when you don't need it.

This is different from the annexation of South Germany, where the national problem is no longer so serious, and integration is progressing steadily, and the reunification of North Germany is no longer the only option.

Finally, the core of the problem is back to the battlefield. If this war is lost, the Kingdom of Prussia will naturally die and will not escape the fate of being divided.

Now they think about the problems after actually winning the war. The Russians were not easy to deal with, and having lost one battle, the tsarist government could organize another one.

The only thing that could restrain the tsarist government was finances. Now they are thinking about how to cut off the source of funding for the tsarist government.

After hesitating for a while, William I made up his mind and said: "Don't worry, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs can do it boldly, it has come to this point, and it will not be worse in any case."

If necessary, empty checks can be made to France and Austria, and the Russians can promise it, and we can promise it too.

As long as we can get more from the Russian Empire, then it is not impossible to sell these lands to them! ”

This is Wilhelm I comforting himself, even if he wins the war, it is still unknown how much flesh he will be able to bite from the Russians.

Since the promises made to France and Austria are empty promises, he is not prepared to fulfill them.

Unless he was forced to do so, it was impossible for William I to exchange the well-run land for Russian land.

If you look at the map, you can see that the areas bordering Prussia and Russia are all the territory of the big waves. Although the geographical conditions are good and the resources are abundant, the problem is that it is not easy to rule!

There were quite a few Poles in the Kingdom of Prussia, and once Russian Poland was annexed, Prussia changed from a German state to a Polish state.

Had it not been for the Congress of Vienna in 1815, when Prussia gave up Warsaw in exchange for the Rhineland and Prussian Saxony, the Germanization campaign would not have succeeded so easily.

You must know that after the partition of Poland by the three countries of Prussia, Russia and Austria, 4.5 million of the 10 million Poles were in Prussia, 1.5 million in Austria, and 4 million remained in the Russian Empire.

It can be said that the first Vienna system saved the Kingdom of Prussia from the embarrassing situation of a Polish majority.

Now it is obviously not the best choice to continue to jump into the giant pit of Poland. Unfortunately, the reality was not chosen by Wilhelm I, and the Junker aristocracy could not tolerate Prussia becoming a second-rate country.

Of course, the Kingdom of Prussia had experience in assimilating the Poles. Wilhelm I was also not prepared to annex the Polish core, and their goal was to take the Lithuanian region and, if possible, the three Baltic states in one fell swoop.

Since the goal is definitely relatively large, can it be achieved? Ideals are always there, how can you know the result without trying?

This was also part of the strategic plan of the British, namely: the independence of Poland, the occupation of most of the Baltic Sea by Prussia, and the weakening of the Russians.

……

Politics requires military cooperation, and at the same time as the Berlin government took diplomatic action, the Prussian army also began to fight back.

Moltke changed his previous strategy of not moving like a mountain and consuming the tsarist government, and instead took the initiative to find an opportunity to fight the Russians.

This change made the Russians very uncomfortable, and they were caught off guard, and the Russian troops who entered the East Prussian area suffered heavy losses, taking 30,000 people in just one week.

For the entire war situation, the total strength of both sides combined is more than one million, and it seems that 30,000 troops seem inconspicuous, but in fact the impact is really huge.

In field battles, the power of breech-loading rifles was astonishing, and the exchange ratio between the two sides on the battlefield appeared to be an astonishing 1:2.7.

This is not defending a city, and the fact that there is such a disparity in exchange ratio in field battles is undoubtedly telling the world that the combat effectiveness of the two armies is not at the same level.